Docker container for CrashPlan PRO

This project implements a Docker container for CrashPlan PRO.

The GUI of the application is accessed through a modern web browser (no installation or configuration needed on the client side) or via any VNC client.

CrashPlan offers the most comprehensive online backup solution to tens of thousands of businesses around the world. The highly secure, automatic and continuous service provides customers the peace of mind that their digital life is protected and easily accessible.

Table of Content

• Quick Start
• Usage
  • Environment Variables
    • Deployment Considerations
  • Data Volumes
  • Ports
  • Changing Parameters of a Running Container
• Docker Compose File
• Docker Image Versioning
• Docker Image Update
  • Synology
  • unRAID
• User/Group IDs
• Accessing the GUI
• Security
  • SSVNC
  • Certificates
  • VNC Password
• Reverse Proxy
  • Routing Based on Hostname
  • Routing Based on URL Path
• Shell Access
• Taking Over Existing Backup
• Why CrashPlan Self Update Is Disabled
• Troubleshooting
  • Crashes / Maximum Amount of Allocated Memory
  • Inotify's Watch Limit
    • Synology
  • Empty /storage
  • Device Status Is Waiting For Connection
  • Cannot Restore Files
  • Upgrade Failed Error Message
• Support or Contact

Quick Start

NOTE: The Docker command provided in this quick start is given as an example and parameters should be adjusted to your need.

Launch the CrashPlan PRO docker container with the following command:

docker run -d \
    --name=crashplan-pro \
    -p 5800:5800 \
    -v /docker/appdata/crashplan-pro:/config:rw \
    -v /home/user:/storage:ro \
    jlesage/crashplan-pro

Where:

• /docker/appdata/crashplan-pro: This is where the application stores its configuration, states, log and any files needing persistency.
• /home/user: This location contains files from your host that need to be accessible to the application.

Browse to http://your-host-ip:5800 to access the CrashPlan PRO GUI. Files from the host appear under the /storage folder in the container.

Usage

docker run [-d] \
    --name=crashplan-pro \
    [-e <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>]... \
    [-v <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS]]... \
    [-p <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>]... \
    jlesage/crashplan-pro

Environment Variables

To customize some properties of the container, the following environment variables can be passed via the -e parameter (one for each variable). Value of this parameter has the format <VARIABLE_NAME>=<VALUE>.

Deployment Considerations

Many tools used to manage Docker containers extract environment variables defined by the Docker image and use them to create/deploy the container. For example, this is done by:

• The Docker application on Synology NAS
• The Container Station on QNAP NAS
• Portainer
• etc.

While this can be useful for the user to adjust the value of environment variables to fit its needs, it can also be confusing and dangerous to keep all of them.

A good practice is to set/keep only the variables that are needed for the container to behave as desired in a specific setup. If the value of variable is kept to its default value, it means that it can be removed. Keep in mind that all variables are optional, meaning that none of them is required for the container to start.

Removing environment variables that are not needed provides some advantages:

• Prevents keeping variables that are no longer used by the container. Over time, with image updates, some variables might be removed.
• Allows the Docker image to change/fix a default value. Again, with image updates, the default value of a variable might be changed to fix an issue, or to better support a new feature.
• Prevents changes to a variable that might affect the correct function of the container. Some undocumented variables, like PATH or ENV, are required to be exposed, but are not meant to be changed by users. However, container management tools still show these variables to users.
• There is a bug with the Container Station on QNAP and the Docker application on Synology, where an environment variable without value might not be allowed. This behavior is wrong: it's absolutely fine to have a variable without value. In fact, this container does have variables without value by default. Thus, removing unneeded variables is a good way to prevent deployment issue on these devices.

Data Volumes

The following table describes data volumes used by the container. The mappings are set via the -v parameter. Each mapping is specified with the following format: <HOST_DIR>:<CONTAINER_DIR>[:PERMISSIONS].

Ports

Here is the list of ports used by the container.

When using the default bridge network, ports can be mapped to the host via the -p parameter (one per port mapping). Each mapping is defined with the following format: <HOST_PORT>:<CONTAINER_PORT>. The port number used inside the container might not be changeable, but you are free to use any port on the host side.

See the Docker Container Networking documentation for more details.

Changing Parameters of a Running Container

As can be seen, environment variables, volume and port mappings are all specified while creating the container.

The following steps describe the method used to add, remove or update parameter(s) of an existing container. The general idea is to destroy and re-create the container:

1. Stop the container (if it is running):

docker stop crashplan-pro

2. Remove the container:

docker rm crashplan-pro

3. Create/start the container using the docker run command, by adjusting parameters as needed.

NOTE: Since all application's data is saved under the /config container folder, destroying and re-creating a container is not a problem: nothing is lost and the application comes back with the same state (as long as the mapping of the /config folder remains the same).

Docker Compose File

Here is an example of a docker-compose.yml file that can be used with Docker Compose.

Make sure to adjust according to your needs. Note that only mandatory network ports are part of the example.

version: '3'
services:
  crashplan-pro:
    image: jlesage/crashplan-pro
    ports:
      - "5800:5800"
    volumes:
      - "/docker/appdata/crashplan-pro:/config:rw"
      - "/home/user:/storage:ro"

Docker Image Versioning

Each release of a Docker image is versioned. Prior to october 2022, the semantic versioning was used as the versioning scheme.

Since then, versioning scheme changed to calendar versioning. The format used is YY.MM.SEQUENCE, where:

• YY is the zero-padded year (relative to year 2000).
• MM is the zero-padded month.
• SEQUENCE is the incremental release number within the month (first release is 1, second is 2, etc).

Docker Image Update

Because features are added, issues are fixed, or simply because a new version of the containerized application is integrated, the Docker image is regularly updated. Different methods can be used to update the Docker image.

The system used to run the container may have a built-in way to update containers. If so, this could be your primary way to update Docker images.

An other way is to have the image be automatically updated with Watchtower. Watchtower is a container-based solution for automating Docker image updates. This is a "set and forget" type of solution: once a new image is available, Watchtower will seamlessly perform the necessary steps to update the container.

Finally, the Docker image can be manually updated with these steps:

1. Fetch the latest image:

docker pull jlesage/crashplan-pro

2. Stop the container:

docker stop crashplan-pro

3. Remove the container:

docker rm crashplan-pro

4. Create and start the container using the docker run command, with the the same parameters that were used when it was deployed initially.

Synology

For owners of a Synology NAS, the following steps can be used to update a container image.

1. Open the Docker application.
2. Click on Registry in the left pane.
3. In the search bar, type the name of the container (jlesage/crashplan-pro).
4. Select the image, click Download and then choose the latest tag.
5. Wait for the download to complete. A notification will appear once done.
6. Click on Container in the left pane.
7. Select your CrashPlan PRO container.
8. Stop it by clicking Action->Stop.
9. Clear the container by clicking Action->Reset (or Action->Clear if you don't have the latest Docker application). This removes the container while keeping its configuration.
10. Start the container again by clicking Action->Start. NOTE: The container may temporarily disappear from the list while it is re-created.

unRAID

For unRAID, a container image can be updated by following these steps:

1. Select the Docker tab.
2. Click the Check for Updates button at the bottom of the page.
3. Click the update ready link of the container to be updated.

User/Group IDs

When using data volumes (-v flags), permissions issues can occur between the host and the container. For example, the user within the container may not exist on the host. This could prevent the host from properly accessing files and folders on the shared volume.

To avoid any problem, you can specify the user the application should run as.

This is done by passing the user ID and group ID to the container via the USER_ID and GROUP_ID environment variables.

To find the right IDs to use, issue the following command on the host, with the user owning the data volume on the host:

id <username>

Which gives an output like this one:

uid=1000(myuser) gid=1000(myuser) groups=1000(myuser),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),46(plugdev),113(lpadmin)

The value of uid (user ID) and gid (group ID) are the ones that you should be given the container.

Accessing the GUI

Assuming that container's ports are mapped to the same host's ports, the graphical interface of the application can be accessed via:

• A web browser:

http://<HOST IP ADDR>:5800

• Any VNC client:

<HOST IP ADDR>:5900

Security

By default, access to the application's GUI is done over an unencrypted connection (HTTP or VNC).

Secure connection can be enabled via the SECURE_CONNECTION environment variable. See the Environment Variables section for more details on how to set an environment variable.

When enabled, application's GUI is performed over an HTTPs connection when accessed with a browser. All HTTP accesses are automatically redirected to HTTPs.

When using a VNC client, the VNC connection is performed over SSL. Note that few VNC clients support this method. SSVNC is one of them.

SSVNC

SSVNC is a VNC viewer that adds encryption security to VNC connections.

While the Linux version of SSVNC works well, the Windows version has some issues. At the time of writing, the latest version 1.0.30 is not functional, as a connection fails with the following error:

ReadExact: Socket error while reading

However, for your convenience, an unofficial and working version is provided here:

https://github.com/jlesage/docker-baseimage-gui/raw/master/tools/ssvnc_windows_only-1.0.30-r1.zip

The only difference with the official package is that the bundled version of stunnel has been upgraded to version 5.49, which fixes the connection problems.

Certificates

Here are the certificate files needed by the container. By default, when they are missing, self-signed certificates are generated and used. All files have PEM encoded, x509 certificates.

NOTE: To prevent any certificate validity warnings/errors from the browser or VNC client, make sure to supply your own valid certificates.

NOTE: Certificate files are monitored and relevant daemons are automatically restarted when changes are detected.

VNC Password

To restrict access to your application, a password can be specified. This can be done via two methods:

• By using the VNC_PASSWORD environment variable.
• By creating a .vncpass_clear file at the root of the /config volume. This file should contain the password in clear-text. During the container startup, content of the file is obfuscated and moved to .vncpass.

The level of security provided by the VNC password depends on two things:

• The type of communication channel (encrypted/unencrypted).
• How secure the access to the host is.

When using a VNC password, it is highly desirable to enable the secure connection to prevent sending the password in clear over an unencrypted channel.

ATTENTION: Password is limited to 8 characters. This limitation comes from the Remote Framebuffer Protocol RFC (see section 7.2.2). Any characters beyond the limit are ignored.

Reverse Proxy

The following sections contain NGINX configurations that need to be added in order to reverse proxy to this container.

A reverse proxy server can route HTTP requests based on the hostname or the URL path.

Routing Based on Hostname

In this scenario, each hostname is routed to a different application/container.

For example, let's say the reverse proxy server is running on the same machine as this container. The server would proxy all HTTP requests sent to crashplan-pro.domain.tld to the container at 127.0.0.1:5800.

Here are the relevant configuration elements that would be added to the NGINX configuration:

map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
	default upgrade;
	''      close;
}

upstream docker-crashplan-pro {
	# If the reverse proxy server is not running on the same machine as the
	# Docker container, use the IP of the Docker host here.
	# Make sure to adjust the port according to how port 5800 of the
	# container has been mapped on the host.
	server 127.0.0.1:5800;
}

server {
	[...]

	server_name crashplan-pro.domain.tld;

	location / {
	        proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan-pro;
	}

	location /websockify {
		proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan-pro;
		proxy_http_version 1.1;
		proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
		proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
		proxy_read_timeout 86400;
	}
}

Routing Based on URL Path

In this scenario, the hostname is the same, but different URL paths are used to route to different applications/containers.

For example, let's say the reverse proxy server is running on the same machine as this container. The server would proxy all HTTP requests for server.domain.tld/crashplan-pro to the container at 127.0.0.1:5800.

Here are the relevant configuration elements that would be added to the NGINX configuration:

map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade {
	default upgrade;
	''      close;
}

upstream docker-crashplan-pro {
	# If the reverse proxy server is not running on the same machine as the
	# Docker container, use the IP of the Docker host here.
	# Make sure to adjust the port according to how port 5800 of the
	# container has been mapped on the host.
	server 127.0.0.1:5800;
}

server {
	[...]

	location = /crashplan-pro {return 301 $scheme://$http_host/crashplan-pro/;}
	location /crashplan-pro/ {
		proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan-pro/;
		location /crashplan-pro/websockify {
			proxy_pass http://docker-crashplan-pro/websockify/;
			proxy_http_version 1.1;
			proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
			proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
			proxy_read_timeout 86400;
		}
	}
}

Shell Access

To get shell access to the running container, execute the following command:

docker exec -ti CONTAINER sh

Where CONTAINER is the ID or the name of the container used during its creation.

Taking Over Existing Backup

If this container is replacing a CrashPlan installation (from Linux, Windows, MAC or another Docker container), your existing backup can be taken over to avoid re-uploading all your data.

To proceed, make sure to carefully read the official documentation.

Here is a summary of what needs to be done:

1. Start CrashPlan Docker container. Make sure the configuration directory is not mapped to a folder used by a different CrashPlan container.
2. Sign in to your account.
3. Click the Replace Existing button to start the wizard.
4. Skip Step 2 - File Transfer.
5. Once done with the wizard, go to your device's details and click Manage Files. You will probably see missing items in the file selection. This is normal, since path to your files may be different in the container.
6. Update the file selection by re-adding your files. Do not unselect missing items yet.
7. Perform a backup. Because of deduplication, files will not be uploaded again.
8. Once the backup is terminated, you can remove missing items if you don't care about file versions. Else, keep missing items.

NOTE: Don't be confused by the directory structure from your old being visible in the Manage Files window. By default, your files are now located under the /storage folder.

Why CrashPlan Self Update Is Disabled

One advantage of a Docker image is that it can be versioned and predictable, meaning that a specific version of the image always behaves the same way. So if, for any reason, a new image version has a problem and doesn't work as expected, it's easy for one to revert to the previous version and be back on track.

Allowing CrashPlan to update itself obviously breaks this benefit. Also, since the container has only the minimal set of libraries and tools required to run CrashPlan, it would be easy for an automatic update to break the container by requiring new dependencies. Finally, the automatic update script is not adapted for Alpine Linux (the distribution on which this container is based on) and assumes it is running on a full-featured distribution. For example, this image doesn't have a desktop like normal installations and some of the tools required to perform the update are missing.

Troubleshooting

Crashes / Maximum Amount of Allocated Memory

If CrashPlan crashes unexpectedly with large backups, try to increase the maximum amount of memory CrashPlan is allowed to use. This can be done by:

1. Setting the CRASHPLAN_SRV_MAX_MEM environment variable. See the Environment Variables section for more details.
2. Using the solution provided by CrashPlan from its support site.

Inotify's Watch Limit

If CrashPlan exceeds inotify's max watch limit, real-time file watching cannot work properly and the inotify watch limit needs to be increased on the host, not the container.

For more details, see the CrashPlan's Linux real-time file watching errors article.

Synology

On Synology NAS, the instructions provided by the article mentioned in the previous section apply, except that the inotify's max watch limit must be set in /etc.defaults/sysctl.conf (instead of /etc/sysctl.conf) to make the setting permanent.

NOTE: After an upgrade of the DSM software, verify that the content of the file has not been overwritten.

Empty /storage

If the /storage folder inside the container is empty:

• Make sure the folder is properly mapped to the host. This is done via the -v parameter of the docker run command. See the Usage section.
• Make sure permissions and ownership of files on the host are correct and are compatible with the user under which the container application is running (defined by the USER_ID and GROUP_ID environment variables). See the User/Group IDs section.

NOTE: If running the application as root (USER_ID=0 and GROUP_ID=0) makes the files visible, it confirms that there is a permission issue.

Device Status Is Waiting For Connection

If the status of your device is stuck on Waiting for connection, clearing the the cache of CrashPlan can help resolve the issue:

• Stop the container.
• Remove all the content of the cache directory found under the container's configuration directory. For example, if the /config folder of the container is mapped to /docker/appdata/crashplan-pro on the host, the following command (ran on the host) would clear the cache:

  rm -rf /docker/appdata/crashplan-pro/cache/*
  

• Start the container.

Cannot Restore Files

If CrashPlan fails to restore files, make sure the location where files are restored have write permission.

A typical installation has the data to be backup under the /storage folder. This folder is usually mapped to the host with read-only permission. Thus, restoring files to /storage won't be allowed. The solution is to temporarily change the permission of the volume to read-write.

For example, if /storage is mapped to /home/user on the host, the container would need to be deleted and then re-created with the same arguments, with the exception of -v /home/user:/storage:ro that is replaced with -v /home/user:/storage:rw.

Upgrade Failed Error Message

Because the CrashPlan's self-upgrade feature is disabled in this container, an error message about failed upgrade can be seen when a new CrashPlan version is released.

To fix this, updating the container's image to the latest version will also bring the latest version of CrashPlan.

Support or Contact

Having troubles with the container or have questions? Please create a new issue.

For other great Dockerized applications, see https://jlesage.github.io/docker-apps.